Aisling's Seattle/Port Townsend 2003 Journal
the ghosthunt

On Friday night, April 4th, 2003, I went ghost hunting at Fort Worden. My first stop was the cemetery, of course. Tidy white markers, each of them identical in size, and it didn't feel particularly haunted there. I took a few photos with my digital camera and with my film camera, and none of them show anything unusual.

Fort Worden Military Cemetery

The wooded area next to the cemetery felt odd. But, nothing unusual appears in those photos either.

woods next to Fort Worden Cemetery

Then I went to a local art event's vendor night for a couple of hours. Afterwards, I paused as I passed the park's Guard House.

There's a classic story that some soldier "accidentally" shot himself there, and that he still haunts the place. Yes, big yawn. I've heard variations on this tale over & over again, so I wasn't expecting much.

Well, I had my famous "sparkles" camera with me. It's an old Olympus AF1-Twin that was a gift to me, new, about 20 years ago. When I use it, it does something very odd in "haunted" locations: It produces bright flickering lights all over the landscape when the flash goes off. I can point the camera away from the "haunted" place... even ten feet away... and zero sparkles happen. I have no explanation for this.

A few other ghosthunters--mostly folks who are making a whole lot of money off the gullible public--have tried to discredit my "sparkles" as dust, etc. That's because they've never seen the sparkles. I am very careful to check for dust, bugs, humidity, and so on, when I take these pictures. Frankly, I take these photos under as close to lab conditions as possible. But that's another subject, for another website.

So anyway, I took a few photos at the Guard House (expecting nothing) and my jaw nearly dropped. The bright lights around me were simply amazing. See, even at my best locations, I usually see white sparkles and pastel colors. They're gorgeous, of course. Even if no anomalies show up on the film, I'm dazzled by the sparkle effect. And, sadly, the sparkles never show up on film, but other anomalies (mostly orbs) usually do, when I see the sparkles.

At the Guard House on Friday night, the sparkles were vivid and rich hues... bright red, electric blue, and so on. It was amazing. Oh, it was too windy & cold for it to be bugs, and the sparkles showed up only when I took photos pointing at the Guard House (and later on the parade ground), so it wasn't moisture in the air.

first photo at the Guard House

I took about a dozen photos, and raced back to where I was staying (a dorm at Fort Worden) to see if ANYone was there, to share this with. On the way, I stopped to snap a few photos of the empty building next to my room. It had that classic "creepy" feeling, and the photos confirm it: A few sparkles, and "normal" orbs, from an average haunting.

empty building at Fort Worden State Park
(some orbs, cool but just average for a haunting)

When I arrived at my room, artist Z'anne Bakke's door was open, and she ready for an adventure. I was so thrilled to be able to show the sparkles to someone else!

So, we went back to the Guard House, and I took a few photos to show her the pretty lights. About 80% of people will see the sparkles, and they see them all around us when the flash goes off. The view is about 200% better through the viewfinder, but it's not necessary to look through it to get the effect IF you are someone who sees them at all.

Anyway, there were maybe three or four sparkles per flash, and that's all. Big sigh of disappointment. I figured that the "haunting" was over for the night. But then... Z'anne talked out loud to the ghost, encouraging him/her/it/them to come out and play and--bingo--in the next flash and the following dozen or so, it was once again an amazing display.

Keep in mind, these photos are not altered in any way. I reduced the size of the image so it's not quite so enormous, and clicked only "Auto Levels" in Adobe Photoshop, to slightly improve the quality of the scan.

And, I have a whole bunch of photos of the Guard House with nothing of note. So, that somewhat discounts speculation about the orbs being from dust, humidity, bugs, pollen, reflections from windows, refracted light from neon signs or car head/tail lights, and so on. If those factors could explain the orbs, we'd see them in most (if not all) of the photos. I'm just posting the interesting ones.

Lots of orbs around the Guard House
Also, see the blue shape at the right side of the photo.

Blue figure haunting Fort Worden Guard House?

So then we went to the parade ground. Again, not much at first, and then Z'anne talked to them and we saw some gorgeous sparkles. Not as good as at the Guard House, but still... pretty darned good.

fairly normal "haunted" orbs at the parade ground

Anyway... the next night, Z'anne took photos on her own, including some of the upstairs where we were staying. And as she waited to take pictures, the outside door opened slowly and then paused. And she talked at it (I adore Z'anne... she has a real knack for this stuff!), and the door opened wide and paused. And so she stood there & took photos, and then stopped, and the door closed abruptly and did not reopen. There was no breeze.

Is that creepy/cool, or what! And, I can't wait to see her photos!

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